Actor Hank Azaria, who voices a number of characters in the Simpsons, delivered a commencement address to graduates at Tufts University in Massachusetts at the weekend

And he offered some words of wisdom in character as a few Springfield residents, including Chief Wiggum, Moe, Apu and Comic Book Guy, who had this sage advice: “Life is like the ‘Star Wars’ movies: some of it is great, some of it sucks, but you have no choice but to sit through all of it.”

Azaria is a former Tufts student and, as well as his work on the Simpsons, has appeared in films including Grosse Pointe Blank, Pretty Woman and Run Fatboy Run.

Speaking as himself, he told the assembled graduands: “I became an actor because I really wanted to be other people – I wanted to be anybody but myself really. So imagine my shock and chagrin when I discovered that, while doing impressions of people can be amusing and even hilarious, great actors… are willing to utterly be themselves in front of an audience or camera.

“When I was your guys age I had a belief that who I was and how I thought and how I felt was inherently uninteresting and flawed and not practical. But it wasn’t until I embraced the person that I really was that my work as an actor got really interesting.

“I’m not suggesting that you ignore the rules of society or the laws of common sense or the actual law or your textbooks… Just please be honest with yourself about what you think and how you fell about all of that – what you like or dislike, what angers you or scares you or saddens you or inspires you or delights you. Those feelings are called you instincts, and you ignore them at your own peril.”